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“Come in, Come in! My door is always open!”
Sam met Tucker's eyes, confirming that he was truly ready before pushing the door open and striding into the office.
Ms. Spectra was seated at her desk with her hands clasped in front of her, as if she'd been expecting them.
“We-”
“Do close the door behind you. We don’t want your treatment to be interrupted.”
Sam rolled her eyes and closed the door behind her. Before she could speak again, Ms. Spectra gave a cat-like smile. "Now you must be Miss Manson, the young lady pretending to be goth to get attention."
"I..." Sam trailed off, momentarily speechless.
"And you must be...oh, I apologize, I've only ever heard of you as Mr. Fenton's friend."
"His name's Tucker Foley," Sam said, finding her voice again. "We're here so we can have our sessions."
"Yes, yes, please sit." Exchanging glances, they both sat stiffly in the uncomfortable chairs in front of her desk. "Let's start with you Miss Manson, I know how dramatic teenage girls can be. What is weighing on your pretty little mind?"
Sam shifted uncomfortably. "Isn't this supposed to be private? Shouldn't Tucker leave the room?"
"Oh no dear, I think he should stay. You're afraid of being vulnerable. I can see it in your eyes. What better way to face that fear than to open up in front of a peer?"
Tucker started to stand. "I really don't mind waiting outs-"
"Sit down." The sudden harsh tone had Tucker plopping back down immediately. "Now, Miss Manson, you should know this kind of fear of self-disclosure is completely normal for girls like you. Let me guess, daddy's not around very much? Daddy issues may sound cliche but you are a rather textbook case."
Sam's face burned. "I don't-"
"I would say mommy issues too. Your parents aren't around very much are they? I imagine they're quite disappointed in the person you turned out to be. They can't stand to be around you for very long, you poor thing. There's no one taking care of you."
Sam was about to retort, perhaps insist that she didn't need to be taken care of, but when she opened her mouth, nothing came out.
Spectra leaned forward with an almost predatory gleam in her eyes. "You spend a lot of time alone, don't you Miss Manson? Yes, it's written all over your face, you are terribly lonely, especially at home. Lonely and unloved. Have your parents ever told you they loved you? When was the last time they even hugged you? You can't remember, can you? Oh, it must hurt terribly. If even your own parents don't love you, who could?"
Sam thought she had been ready before coming in. She knew Ms. Spectra had brought up insecurities for everyone at school. Kids left her office feeling bad about how they looked, worrying about their grades and their futures, or upset about not being more popular. All things that teens usually worried about at school. She had not been expecting to have her home life brought up or for her greatest fears to be revealed right in front of her friend.
She glanced at Tucker, hoping to see that he had his PDA out and wasn't listening. Instead, she found him gaping at them, taking in every word. Even worse, Ms. Spectra picked up on that anxiety immediately.
"You don't want your friends to know how lonely you are, do you, Samantha? Now why is that? Are you afraid of being a burden on them the way you are with your parents? Or do you just not want them to pity your sad, lonely life?"
Spectra turned to Tucker. "How is it Trevor, that you had no idea that your friend has been hurting so badly? Why does she not trust you? You must not be that good of a friend after all."
Before either could speak up, Ms. Spectra turned back to Sam. "Still, you'll take whatever slivers of friendship you can get, won't you Samantha? People tend not to like you, don't they? It's nice of your two boys to let you follow them around. You should be thankful for that while it lasts. One day you'll push them too far and they will abandon you too."
She leaned toward Sam with another cunning grin. "You've already pushed them quite far though, haven't you? Your dear friend Danny is in so much pain. He is miserable and exhausted and it's your fault, isn't it? You did something terrible to him to cause of all his suffering. What kind of person does that to a friend? Are you a bad friend Samantha? Or just a bad person in general? What do you think will happen when your friends realize you're more trouble than you're worth? You will be left all alone. That's your destiny, isn't it, to be alone?"
"Please stop," Sam whispered. She wanted to walk away but she couldn't get herself to move. Why couldn't she leave?
"Your heart is lonely too, you poor dear. It's just breaking every day. There's a boy, isn't there? One of your friends you're hopelessly in love with? But he doesn't love you back, he doesn't even look at you. And why would he? There's nothing special about you. You're just a lonely, mean, little girl that no one can love. That's why you're going to end up alone just like you are every time you go home. Your parents have given up on you and it's only a matter of time until your friends do too."
Sam was trembling now with rage, despair, and humiliation. Every word sliced into her like broken glass. "Please. Stop." She could barely get the words out.
"Oh and now you're crying dear." Ms. Spectra made a big show of placing a box of tissues in front of her, "It's okay, the fragile girls always cry when they're faced with the truth. It's a good thing your dear friend is here to see this; it helps for your friends to finally see who you truly are. And this is who you are, isn't it? A weak, scared, lonely, girl. Not nearly so strong, brave, or special as you pretend to be. Who could ever love someone like you?"
"That's enough." Tucker stood abruptly. "We're done here. Sam, let's go." Sam looked up at him in surprise. She'd never seen Tucker so angry before.
Ms. Spectra turned to him with faux kindness. "Oh, how sweet of you, Tony, was it? To pretend to be a hero. See Samantha, this is why you should be thankful for your friends while you have them. Even this powerless child knows you're too weak to fight your own battles."
"Leave her alone," Tucker practically growled as he pulled Sam to her feet. "I don't know what the hell you did to her, but if you ever come near Sam again, you'll regret it." He put an arm around her and led her out of the office, Ms. Spectra smiled as she watched them leave.
Sam stumbled along with Tucker, still trembling. He led her to the nearest bathrooms. "Go in and wash your face Sam. I'll wait here." She nodded numbly and walked into the (blessedly, empty) girl's bathroom.
She looked in the mirror and saw her face was streaked with mascara that had run down it with her tears. Normally she would curse herself for not using waterproof makeup that morning. Instead, she vacantly dug a makeup wipe from her bag and cleaned herself up, Ms. Spectra's words echoing in her mind.
It had only taken a few minutes for all of her deepest fears and insecurities to be laid out and manipulated. Ms. Spectra had confirmed that all of the things Sam worried about were true. Worst of all, she seemed to know Sam's most private thoughts and feelings and she revealed all of them to Tucker. She had never felt more humiliated in her entire life.
Oh god, what if Danny had been there? That was the whole point of them going in for their sessions! What if when they didn't come out, Danny went invisible and was listening? She wished she could go invisible right now. She wasn't sure she ever wanted to face Tucker again after that.
Tucker. Wait, why wasn't Tucker falling apart too? Sam had felt frozen to the spot, why wasn't he? She hurried out of the bathroom and found Tucker leaning wearily against a locker waiting for her. He looked sad and tired but not quite as drained as everyone else had been. Was he just hiding it?
As soon as he saw her, Tucker pushed himself off the locker and wrapped Sam in a hug. "She doesn't know shit, Sam." He said, holding her tightly, her head tucked under his chin. "You're one of the strongest people I know and I've always got your back. You're never alone Sam, never." Tears welled up in her eyes again and Sam surprised them both by hugging him back.
"Are you okay?" she asked quietly.
"Me? I'm fine." They broke apart and Tucker led the way to Danny's locker. "She bummed me out, but we expected that. It was a lot worse for you. I'm sorry I didn't say something sooner." They both sank to the floor and leaned against the wall, waiting for Danny to return. Sam was having a hard time meeting Tucker's eyes.
"You shouldn't have had to say something. I should have been able to stand up for myself." She hugged her knees against her chest and rested her chin on them.
"You tried to stand up for yourself. She did something to you, to both of us. It felt like I couldn't move and I saw how hard it was for you to talk."
Sam just hugged her legs tighter to herself, wanting to disappear.
Tucker sighed. "She got to me too, you know. She wasn't as obvious with me but she hit all my buttons too."
When Sam didn't respond, he continued, "I worry about being invisible and forgettable so she made me feel insignificant. I'm jealous and feel inferior to Danny so she mocked me for not being a real hero. I'm afraid that I'm a bad friend that can't protect you guys so she hurt you in front of me. Basically, I'm afraid that I don't matter and she made sure to treat me like I don't."
Sam looked at him in surprise. This was stuff Tucker never talked about. He shrugged and gave her a weak smile. "Hey she said all your insecurities out loud. It's only fair that you hear mine too."
"You don't have to do that."
"I know. But you're my friend and I trust you." He bumped her shoulder with his. "I'm not embarrassed to share stuff with you, Sam and you don't need to be embarrassed with me. So now you know: my worst fear is that I don't matter."
Sam gave a shaky smile back. "You matter to me, Tuck."
"And you're never alone, SammyGirl." He pulled her closer with an arm around her shoulders and pressed a kiss to the top of her head.
They sat in silence for a while. The gloom that hung over them since leaving Spectra's office was still there but it didn't feel quite so heavy now.
After a while, Sam turned to Tucker. "How did you do it?"
"Do what?"
"Stand up to Spectra. I tried and tried to get up and walk away. It was like the dispair was a physical weight holding me down. No matter how much I wanted to, I couldn't move. How did you?"
Tucker took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes. "I'm not sure. At first, I felt the same. It was like I was just watching her hurt us and I couldn't do anything about it. But then..." He put his glasses back on and paused thoughtfully. "But then she made you cry. I really really hate it when people make you cry, Sam. I got mad. Then it was like...like I didn't care what I was feeling. I just cared about getting you out of there."
Sam thought about his answer. She felt like they were right on the edge of figuring out Spectra's weakness...
"Guys! We have to go!" Danny appeared in front of them, making both teens jump. "It's the assembly! They're targeting the assembly!"